Projects

Overcoming Barriers to Local Governance of Utility-Scale Solar Energy Systems in Pennsylvania and Regionally

Awarded: 2021 | Project Type: IEE Seed Grant

A research team is developing resources and guidelines for local governments to develop solar ordinances that are effective and trusted by the local community.

Simultaneously Harvesting Cold Universe and Sunlight as Renewable Energy

Awarded: 2021 | Project Type: IEE Seed Grant

A team of researchers is developing a dual-energy harvester that can harvest sunlight and the cold universe to simultaneously produce cooling and electricity.

Towards Sustainable and Equitable Household Water Security: Lessons from Bangladesh

Awarded: 2021 | Project Type: IEE Seed Grant

A research team is studying how environmental conditions in Bangladesh affect household water security and whether information about environmental health risks can help alleviate water insecurity.

Urban Microclimate, Outdoor Thermal Comfort, and Socio-Economic Mapping: A Case Study of Two High-Density Cities

Awarded: 2021 | Project Type: IEE Seed Grant

Researchers are developing a new way to map urban thermal comfort in cities to help inform architects, urban planners, and policymakers about the relationship between outdoor urban climate and socioeconomic factors.

Visualizing Cultural Landscapes Under Sea-Level Threat to Improve Equity in Climate Engagement

Awarded: 2021 | Project Type: IEE Seed Grant

A research team is developing realistic visualizations of sea-level rise to help people understand the impact on culturally significant sites and landscapes, especially for racially and culturally diverse audiences.

Water Quality Assessment of an Urban Watershed in Lancaster, Pa: Implications for Environmental Justice

Awarded: 2021 | Project Type: IEE Seed Grant

A research team is studying the pollution in urban waterways in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with the goal of developing a tool that can provide real-time information on urban water health.

Wetland Hydrology and Plant Community Composition – A Reassessment of Site Conditions a Decade Later

Awarded: 2021 | Project Type: IEE Seed Grant

A Penn State researcher looks to reinstall instruments on wetland sites where he collected data more than a decade ago to assess hydrologic changes that may have occurred due to climate change.

Assessing Pollinator Resilience to Environmental Warming through Novel Technologies

Awarded: 2020 | Project Type: IEE Seed Grant

Bee decline threatens ecosystem sustainability through reductions in pollination services to plants and crops. The reliance on bee pollination for food security and ecosystem functioning has emphasized the critical need to understand resilience of wild bee populations in response to environmental stressors. Increased variation in environmental temperature due to climate change is a key stressor to bees and potential driver of pollinator decline generally.

Bioinspired Self-Healing Cement for Sealing Well Leakage: Towards Sustainable Shale Gas Supply

Awarded: 2020 | Project Type: IEE Seed Grant

Cement in the oil and gas wells is used primarily to support the casing and to provide hydraulic isolation of various geological formations penetrated by the wellbore. However, this primary job can be jeopardized by the cracking or debonding of cement sheath from either casing or the formation. Of issues exposing the cement sheath integrity to risk are required stimulation practices such as hydraulic fracturing due to high pressure and temperature fluctuations. Typically, these strong fluctuations accommodate the formation of radial cracks and micro-annuli.

Building Energy Savings by Tuning Indoor Lighting

Awarded: 2020 | Project Type: IEE Seed Grant

Lighting plays an important role in non-visual responses in areas such as physiology, psychology, cognition, sleeplessness, alertness, and work productivity. Among the various possible non-visual responses, there is a long-held belief that warm-colored lighting induces feelings of warmth, while cool-colored lighting produces the opposite effect, which was first proposed in 1926.

Characterizing Structural Changes in Sodium-Ion Battery Electrodes in Real-Time

Awarded: 2020 | Project Type: IEE Seed Grant

The goal of this seed grant is to construct and test an electrochemical cell that will be operated at a synchrotron light source to determine how electrode materials used in sodium-ion batteries structurally change in real-time during charging and discharging. Recent studies performed on electrode materials used in lithium-ion batteries found that this type of structural characterization can provide fundamental insights into why batteries fail or lose capacity over time. This approach is just beginning to be applied to electrode materials used in sodium-ion batteries.

Climate Change on Hudson Bay: A Century After Nanook

Awarded: 2020 | Project Type: IEE Seed Grant

Kirk French and his team are documenting the changes in the environment and the culture of the Arctic through a filmmaking project that revisits the first documentary film "Nanook of the North." In this project, French and his collaborators are creating "Climate Change on the Hudson: A Century After Nanook." The team has returned to Inukjuak, home of the original documentary, to examine what has happened to the community over the past century, the effects of climate change and how they are committed to maintaining their culture.